The membership of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 has voted at its meeting on April 16, 2015 to call for a stopwork meeting on May 1st. It is fitting that on May Day, International Workers Day, Bay Area ports will be shut down to protest the racist police killing of mainly black and brown people. This is the first U.S. union to take such action. Local 10 took similar action on May Day 2008 to close Pacific Coast ports stopping all work to demand an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the first such anti-war union action in American labor history. Continue reading →

Political prisoner and revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal has been the victim of criminal neglect by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections for months, and his life is in grave danger.

The problem began in January with a severe skin rash which spread to Mumia’s entire body. When he asked for treatment he was given antibiotics and steroids, but these led to allergic reactions, including extreme swelling from his feet to his head, and severe blisters. His skin was tight and crusted. Mumia told his wife Wadiya Jamal and other visitors that a prison doctor said he looked like he was “in a suit of armor,” with “his chest raised up to his chin to create space to breathe.”

Obviously he should have been taken to the hospital immediately, but he was not. On February 17th he was admitted to the prison infirmary for a week, then sent back to his cell, where his condition continued to deteriorate.

10 January 2015 — The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison Radio, and Oakland Teachers for Mumia held a public meeting on December 5th of last year titled “Cops vs Free Speech,” to discuss and protest violations of free speech, which were initiated by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). The meeting focussed on Pennsylvania’s new “gag” law, which criminalized Mumia, other convicts, and anyone who disseminates the speech or writings of convicts; and the suppression of the Urban Dreams web site by the Oakland School Board, an act which also targeted Mumia. (While the Oakland School Board has now restored the Urban Dreams site, the struggle against the “gag” law in PA continues.)

Speakers included Cephus Johnson, Oscar Grant’s “Uncle Bobby”; Eliot Grossman, former lawyer for Mumia; and Keith Cook, brother of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Funds were raised to support the struggle against the Pennsylvania “gag” law. Continue reading →

In a meeting held at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley on Friday the 5th, the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, together with Oakland Teachers for Mumia and Prison Radio, held a successful public event which netted $611 to fight the Pennsylvania “gag” law, which targets Mumia and the free speech rights of all convicts.

Thanks to everyone who attended and donated to this important effort!

Most of the proceeds were pledged directly to the web site on computers provided at the event by Prison Radio, the non-profit organization which publishes Mumia’s commentaries, and which organized the legal challenge to the “gag” law. If you haven’t yet contributed to this effort, the site to go to is:

Everyone, from black and Latino youth, anti-war activists, labor militants and rap artists can be in their cross-hairs. Join the the Labor Action To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison Radio and Teachers For Mumia to hear how police are targeting political enemies with attempts to restrict free speech.

• “Manufacturing Guilt” will be shown — the riveting documentary of the frame-up of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal is a group of union activists dedicated to educating workers about Jamal's case and promoting labor action in solidarity with his struggle. Our founding statement dated January 10, 1999, is posted here.